Local and Industrial History

Social and Industrial History collection

The Social and Industrial History collection consists of around 11,000 items. The majority of this material relates to the personal lives of people who lived within the Borough of Rotherham. Domestic life in the late Victorian period is particularly well represented. We also have a good selection of costume, including many items of ladies clothing, dating mainly from the Victorian period to the mid-20th century.

Local industry

We have an excellent representative collection of around 1,600 items from the Beatson Clark Glass Company, which include glass industry tools, items used in the process of glass making, and many finished products. We also have many items that were produced by the Guest & Chrimes Brassworks, including several of their early taps and water valves.

We hold good examples of locally made fire surrounds, including a number of cast iron surrounds made by companies such as Yates & Haywood and George Wright & Co. Twentieth century iron and steel production also features in the collection. A highlight is the pair of serviette rings produced to mark the first casting from the first Kaldo produced steel in the UK. The Kaldo process was a revolutionary new way to produce steel invented in Europe and used for the first time in 1954. In the early 1960s, it was introduced to Parkgate Iron and Steel, making Rotherham the first place in England to use the new process.

Timepieces

Our collection of timepieces includes an excellent group of locally made and locally retailed long case clocks, including examples produced by Rotherham makers Abraham Taffinder and Cecelia Fletcher. These are complemented by a small but interesting collection of early pocket watches, six of which date from the mid-1700s.